Some Twit Hollywooder and a Tomb

A couple of interesting facts, from Singing in the Reign:

Cameron has found a burial box with the name "Jesus" inscribed on it. Actually, it says, "Yeshua" or "Joshua"--the Aramaic name translated "Jesus" in the Gospels. The question is, how does he know this is the Jesus?

In the first century, Joshua was a very popular name. The Israeli scholar Tal Ilan has published a remarkable book, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE (Tubingen: Mohr, 2002). In this book, Ilan has collected the names of all those known from ancient works and archeological discoveries, such as burial sites and inscriptions.

...Bauckham builds on Ilan's work to show that from the evidence, it would seem that in Jesus day the name "Joshua" or "Jesus" was the sixth most common name given to Jewish children.

What about "Son of Joseph"?

Joseph was the second most popular name!

Well, certainly. But what about "Mary"?

Mary was one of the most popular names for women in Jesus' day.

As to the "Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a son" routine:

But Cameron goes on to claim that this Jesus he's found must be the Jesus of the New Testament. Why? Because he had a son named Judah who was the son of Miriam, or Mary. Cameron says, clearly this was Jesus' wife--Mary Magdalene. ...aside from the fact that there is no record that Jesus was ever romantically involved with Mary Magdalene, there is absolutely no indication anywhere that Jesus had a son named Judah.

What's clear here is that Cameron wants to sell something. Anything, so long as it engenders a "taxable event" like income...