Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Gospel truth?

20 October 2001

DNA tests are helping to settle the dispute over a body thought to be that of
Christ’s disciple Luke.

Historical sources suggest Luke was born in Syria and died in Greece around
AD 150. His body was moved to Constantinople in Turkey, then to Padua in Italy.
So some people believe a skeleton found in a Padua sarcophagus in 1998 is
Luke’s, even though the body could have been switched in Greece or Turkey.

Cristiano Vernesi of Ferrara University in Italy and his colleagues have
analysed DNA from teeth belonging to the body and compared it with DNA from
various…

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