Joshua Middleton

Joshua Middleton (sometimes credited as Josh Middleton) is an artist and designer working in the animation, film, comics, and book industries. In 2004 he was nominated for an Eisner Award as "Best Cover Artist" for his work on Marvel's NYX, X-Men Unlimited, and New Mutants.

Career

Middleton started his career as a comic book artist in 2000 as penciler for CrossGen's Meridian, written by Barbara Kesel. After that, he joined a small independent British publisher, Com.x, planning to release there his creator-owned series Sky Between Branches, but only did a preview issue in early 2002, along with some other work for the publisher.

After contributing covers and short stories to Marvel's X-Men Unlimited series beginning in late 2002, he signed an exclusive contract in 2003, and created NYX with Joe Quesada as writer, but left the title after four issues in 2004 when his contract ran out.

Following his stint at Marvel he signed exclusively with DC Comics in 2004. His first DC series was Superman/Shazam: First Thunder, a miniseries that launched in September 2005. Along with illustrating some short stories and single issues, Middleton also served as regular cover artist for the Vertigo series American Virgin and DC Comics' Supergirl ongoing series.

Joshua

Joshua /ˈdʒɒʃuə/ or Jehoshua (Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yĕhôshúʿa or Hebrew: יֵשׁוּעַ Yĕshúʿa; Aramaic: ܝܫܘܥ‎ Isho; Greek: Ἰησοῦς, Arabic: يوشع بن نون‎ Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn; Latin: Iosue, Turkish: Yuşa), is a figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel (Num 13–14) and identified in several passages as Moses' assistant. He is the central figure in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua. According to the books of Exodus, Numbers and Joshua, he became the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses. His name was Hoshe'a (הוֹשֵׁעַ) the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him Yehoshu'a (יְהוֹשֻעַ; Joshua in English) (Numbers 13:16) the name by which he is commonly known. The name is shortened to Yeshua in Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8:17). According to the Bible he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus.

He was one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. (Numbers 13:1-16) After the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, and allocated the land to the tribes. According to Biblical chronology, Joshua lived between 1355-1245 BCE, or sometime in the late Bronze Age. According to Joshua 24:29, Joshua died at the age of 110.

Joseph F. Girzone

Joseph Francis Girzone (May 15, 1930 – November 29, 2015), sometimes known as the "Joshua Priest", was an American Catholic priest and writer, most notably as the author of the Joshua series of novels.

Life

Early life

Girzone was born in Albany, New York, to Peter, a butcher, and Margaret Girzone, the oldest of their twelve children. It was a struggling family, which experienced the shame of eviction during his childhood.<ref name=TU2 /

Girzone entered the Carmelite Order as a young man and was ordained as a priest in 1955. A few years later he chose to leave the order in favor of life as a secular priest and was accepted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. He then served at various parishes of the diocese, in the course of which he became active in advocating for the elderly. He was a driving force in the formation of the Office for the Aging of Montgomery County.<ref name=TU /

In 1981, however, Girzone was diagnosed with a heart condition which was judged to be fatal, leading him to retire from active ministry.<ref name=girzone-site / He accepted the forfeiture of any pension or medical benefits from the diocese as part of an agreement for his early retirement.<ref name=NCR /

Joshua (name)

Joshua is a Biblical given name derived from the Hebrew Yehoshua (יהושע). The name was a common alternative form of the name יֵשׁוּעַ – yēšūă which corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which, through the Latin Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.

As a result of the origin of the name, a majority of people before the 17th century who have this name are Jewish. A variant, truncated form of the name, Josh, gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s.

Popularity

Joshua

Information from the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics from 2003 to 2007 shows "Joshua" among the top-five given names for newborn males. In Scotland, the popularity of "Joshua" has been substantially lower than in the rest of the United Kingdom, appearing at rank 35 in 2000 and rising to rank 22 in 2006.

Instances of use

Following is a short annotated list of persons, real and fictional, sharing "Joshua" or "Josh" or very rarely "Yehoshua" as a given name, representative of the breadth in geography and time of the names' use.