Joshua
Name | Joshua |
Actor | Roger Aaron Brown (5.16) Paul Barton (12.19) |
Dates | Before humanity - 2017 (killed by Dagon) |
Location | |
Occupation | Angel |
Episode(s) | 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon 12.19 The Future |
So why’s he talking to me? I sometimes think it’s because I can sympathize. Gardener to gardener. And between us, I think he gets lonely.
– Joshua, 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
History
Joshua was an angel of Heaven who Castiel introduced as an angel who talks to God. Joshua was the only angel Castiel knew of who had kept in contact with God after God left Heaven. While many angels believed that Joshua talked with God, in reality God talked to him. In Heaven, Zachariah held authority over him, and threatened to fire him once, although Joshua stopped Zachariah taking that threat further due to his connection to God. He often spent his time contributing to Heaven's Garden.[1] On God's request, he allowed Sam and Dean to remember their time in Heaven after sending them back to Earth.
Joshua survived the Fall, taking refuge with Methuselah on Earth (according to Methuselah, Joshua made a mean lasagna) and attempted to devise a way to contact God using an amulet he created. Upon Heaven getting back into order, he decided to step aside and not take any authoritative roles. After Lucifer impregnated Kelly Kline with a Nephilim, Joshua returned to the fold, leading Heaven in their attempts to track down Kelly Kline, but he was killed by Dagon when Castiel arrived at the Playground with Kelly.
Episodes
5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
When Dean and Sam are in Heaven and are contacted by Castiel through a TV, he tells them about Joshua, an angel that the brothers must find: He is the only angel he knows of that talks directly to God and has maintained contact up until now. If they were to locate him, they could potentially extract the exact position of God himself, and essentially end the Apocalypse. After the Winchesters get into a dangerous position with Zachariah, Joshua finds them restrained and asks Zachariah to let him deliver a message to Sam and Dean. After Zachariah refuses, Joshua tactfully pulls rank on him, hinting that a higher authority (God) has ordered this event, and quietly implies that should he not comply, God's wrath would be likely punishment.
Whisking the brothers away to the center of Heaven, the Garden, he delivers the message that God is indeed the one who rescued them from Lucifer, raised Castiel, and granted salvation to Dean and even Sam. He also reveals that God is on Earth, somewhere. When asked why God would choose to speak to Joshua and not to anyone else, Joshua speculates that because God and he are both "gardeners" to a degree, God must feel that Joshua can sympathize with him better than anyone else, adding that God is also on the lonely side.
Telling them that God wants them to "back off," he reveals that God seems to feel that the Apocalypse is not his problem, and he will not help. Joshua seems genuinely sad to be the bearer of bad news, assuring the Winchesters that he is rooting for them to prevail in their struggle, but assures them that this is no lie. Sending them back to Earth, he parts with the words that God wants them to "remember." Presumably, he means that God meant for them to remember their stay in Heaven this time around, rather than forget, as they have done, presumably, many times before.
12.15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
When the angel Kelvin tells Castiel in exchange for helping Heaven track down Kelly Kline, he will be forgiven for all his past transgression. Citing that Joshua has the authority allow Castiel back into Heaven. Castiel is surprised as Joshua had "stepped aside," but due to the Nephilim being created, it's an "all hands on deck" situation in Heaven, and Joshua has a plan for which he needs Castiel's help.
12.19 The Future
After Kelly Kline attempted to kill herself, Jack was able to bring her back to life. As a result, the angels felt a celestial pulse, which Joshua used to track down Dagon and Kelly. Castiel manages to retrieve Kelly. Later, Joshua contacts him through angel radio, ordering them to make their way to the Playground.
Once Castiel brought Kelly Kline to the sandbox, Joshua materializes and greets the two. As he approaches the two, he attempts to comfort Kelly, telling her she doesn't need to be scared, when he suddenly combusts into a pile of ash at the hands of Dagon. Castiel is later able to kill Dagon, avenging Joshua's death.
14.17 Game Night
It is revealed that after the Fall, Joshua sought refuge with a man named Methuselah. He would also forge an amulet similar to Dean's Amulet, in an attempt to contact God. Although Castiel manages to find the amulet and uses it send a message to God, it doesn't work, and Methuselah says that the same end result happened with Joshua.
14.20 Moriah
Chuck appears before Castiel, saying he's here because he heard his prayer from when he used Joshua's amulet and because of Jack.
Trivia
- Joshua is the only angel that Sam and Dean have not met on Earth; considering that Joshua has therefore never taken a vessel to meet them, it is unclear whether his appearance in Heaven was based on a specific past vessel, similar to how Zachariah and Naomi appeared to the Winchesters and Castiel in Heaven in the form of their vessels on Earth, or if Joshua's appearance was just chosen to present a reassuring manner.
- The notions revealed by Joshua that God is on earth and is "lonely" strongly reminds one of the pop song "What If God Was One Of Us" by Joan Osborne. It contains the refrain "What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home, trying to make his way home, back up to Heaven all alone, nobody calling on the phone, 'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome."
Joshua in Lore
Joshua may be comparable to the Judeo angel Camael, whose names means "He Who Sees God". The name Joshua (Yehoshua) is a Hebrew name of which the Greek-Roman form is Jesus. The most famous Jesus is of course Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ), who in mainstream Christianity is the 'Son of God', not an angel. This Jesus does not figure in Supernatural's mythology, but the angel Joshua seems to have borrowed some of Jesus' traits along with the name. Firstly, of Jesus it is said that he is the only one who has seen the face of God the Father (John 1:18, 6:46) -- and the show's angel Joshua is the only one who speaks with God (be it not face to face). Secondly, after Jesus rose from the death, one of his female disciples did not immediately recognize him and mistook him for a gardener (John 20:15) - and in the show, the angel Joshua is called a "gardener."