The five to the left are a series figurative of the Son; the five on the right symbolize Our Lord Himself.

They stand in chronological order: the prototypes of the Messiah, or the Prophets who foretold His birth, death, resurrection, and everlasting priesthood.
"To the left, Melchizedec, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David; to the right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter." "But why," remarked Durtal, "is the son of Jonas in the midst of the Old Testament?
His place is not there, but in the Gospels." "Yes, but you will observe that Saint Peter here stands next to Saint John the Baptist; the two statues are side by side and touch each other.
Then do you not perceive the meaning of this juxtaposition?
One was the Precursor and the other the Successor of Christ; the first anticipated Him, the second carried out His mission.

It was quite natural to place them together, and that the Chief of the Apostles should figure as the conclusion to the premisses set forth by the other statues of this portal.
"Finally, in addition to this series of patriarchs and prophets, you may see there, in the hollow between the pilasters, a pair of statues, one on each side of the door: Elijah the Tishbite, and Elisha his disciple.
"The first prefigures the Saviour's Ascension by his being carried up alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire; the second typifies Jesus saving and preserving mankind in the person of the Shunammite's son.
"Argument is vain," murmured Durtal, who was meditative.

"The Messianic prophecies are irresistible.

All the logic of the Rabbins, the Protestants, the Freethinkers, all the ingenuity of the Germans, have failed to find a crack or to undermine the old rock of the Church.