DNA testing offers clues on Luke
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Sophisticated DNA testing on relics believed to belong to the Gospel writer Luke indicate the remains may actually have belonged to the apostle.
___An Italian scientist, Guido Barbujani, examined relics believed to be of Luke, which were interred in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in the Italian city of Padua. His findings were documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
___Luke, a physician and author of one of the four Gospels, is believed to have died in the Greek city of Thebes at the age of 84. His body was first moved to Constantinople in 338 A.D. and then taken to Padua sometime around 1177.
___In 1992, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Thebes asked the Roman Catholic bishop of Padua for a relic of Luke to be included in Luke's tomb in Thebes. The bishop of Padua, Antonio Mattiazzo, agreed, but wanted the relics tested for identification.
___The Padua coffin fit exactly into its former resting place in Constantinople. Scientists tested a tooth in the coffin for DNA and identified it as belonging to a Syrian male, sometime around 300 A.D. Luke is believed to have been born in Antioch, in Syria.
___In order to test further, scientists examined the head of Luke, which was removed by Emperor Charles IV in 1354 and taken to Prague. The skull fit the other remains almost exactly, and the tooth taken from the coffin fit into the right socket of the jawbone.
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