Name	Joshua
Actor	Roger Aaron Brown
Dates	Before Humanity -
Location	Heaven
Occupation	Angel
Episode(s)	5.16 Dark Side of the Moon

Joshua is an Angel of Heaven who Castiel introduces as an angel who talks to God. Joshua is the only angel Castiel knows of who has kept in contact with God. He occupies Heaven but his initial rank in The Host of Heaven remains unknown - Zachariah holds authority over him. He often spends his time contributing to Heaven's Garden.^[1]. Although, Zachariah holds more authority over it, as he threatened to fire him. He saves Sam and Dean from Zachariah and tells them that God is on Earth, and will not intervene further in the Apocalypse. On God's request, he allows them to remember their time in Heaven and sends them back to Earth.History

Characteristics

Powers and Abilities

• Can revive dead people.^[1]
• Can communicate with God, though not face to face.

Weaknesses

• Angel Killing Sword
• Angel Banishing Sigil

Appearances

5.16 Dark Side of the Moon

Joshua is first mentioned in episode 5.16 The Dark Side of the Moon, when Dean and Sam are in Heaven and are contacted by Castiel through a TV. According to Castiel, Joshua is someone 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, 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.

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".

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 appeared to the Winchesters in Heaven in the form of his vessel 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" (1995) of 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."