T HE J EWISH Q UARTERLY R EVIEW, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Winter 2007) 1–32 ARTICLES Sandak and Godparent in Midrash and Medieval Practice HILLEL I. NEWMAN T HE MIGRATION OF WORDS from one language to another and the process of their naturalization in new surroundings often turn them into raw materials for the historian. A noted example from the realm where lexicography and history meet is that of the sandak, 1 the honored guest at a Jewish circumcision who holds the baby as the ritual is performed and who is sometimes described as a ‘‘godparent.’’ 2 What makes this case particularly significant is the fact—long recognized—that the title and the role it describes suggest the influence of Christian baptism on the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. For Leopold Zunz, a founding father of the ‘‘Science of Judaism,’’ the sandak was paradigmatic of the appropriation of Gentile practices in Jewish ritual. 3 Though the subject generated fruit- ful philological and historical discussion during the nineteenth century (including the suggestion that the term was derived directly from the Greek nomenclature of godparenthood), 4 little of consequence was added over the next hundred years to what had already been said. 5 Several years 1. Since the question of etymology is central to this study, the conventional transcription sandak is used here merely by default and is not intended to be phonetically prejudicial. 2. In what follows, the inadequacy of this translation is discussed at length. 3. Leopold Zunz, Die Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes (Berlin, 1859), 4. 4. See especially Leopold Lo ¨w, Die Lebensalter in der ju ¨ dischen Literatur (Szege- din, 1875), 83–86; A. J. Glassberg, Zikhron berit la-rishonim (Cracow, 1892), 236– 41. For further nineteenth-century literature on the etymology of the term, see below. 5. See, for example, the treatment of the subject in Jacob Verdiger, ‘Edut le- Yisra’el (Bene Berak, 1965 2 ), 142–44, which is riddled with inaccurate second- hand references. A more helpful presentation may be found in A. N. Z. Roth, ‘‘Milim be-milah,’’ Yeda‘ ‘am 13 (1968): 52–56. For a recent summary, see Nissan Rubin, The Beginning of Life: Rites of Birth, Circumcision and Redemption of the First- Born in the Talmud and Midrash (Hebrew; Tel Aviv, 1995), 97. The Jewish Quarterly Review (Winter 2007) Copyright  2007 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved.