Godparents - where did that come from?

For most people, "godparents" is all about dressing up for a special wedding-like occasion (i.e. the christening), and the honour of having a special place in the life of a friend's child. Godparents are often relatives or family friends who send you an extra Christmas card and/or a birthday present. 

For some Christians who hold to infant baptism, godparents have a more serious role, answering the questions at baptism on behalf of the infant being baptised (see below), and pledging to be involved in their Christian upbringing. In other infant baptism traditions, for example, Presbyterianism, it is the parents who take on this role, the infant being granted baptism based on an understanding of the covenant whereby believer's children are also part of the covenant on account of the faith of their parents. 

So what do Baptists, and others who hold to a believer's baptism position, make of "godparents"? (Believer's baptism means baptism based on the person being baptised themselves answering the questions at baptism/making their own baptismal vows.)

In our own case, when our eldest daughter was born, while she was not baptised, she was prayed for in church (what is called a "dedication", "blessing" or "thanksgiving"). There were two couples present on this occasion, who agreed to act as godparents, in the sense of being honorary uncles and aunts for her, involved in her Christian upbringing, and also with a role should anything "happen to us".  

The origin of "godparents" is, however, surprisingly interesting and helpful - and consistent with a "believer's baptism" position. It is a statistical fact that, in the case of those who did not grow up with Christian parents, most people who become Christians do so as the result of input from one or more close friends or family. Sometimes it is a colleague at work, or a neighbour, or a friend, or sometimes a relative. That person is the one who told you the gospel. Maybe they helped you to pray as you came to faith. They are the one you went to for advice in the early days and years. In the early church they would also have been the one who would vouch for you before the church/bishop, and would guide you as you prepared for baptism. And they would be the one who greeted you as you emerged from the baptismal pool, "holding the towel" as it were. In the early church this person was called a "sponsor", anadochos (one who receives [the person out of the font]), or "mother/father". You can read a contemporary Eastern Orthodox perspective on this history here.

In the second century AD, Hippolytus of Rome wrote, 

"Those who come forward for the first time to hear the word shall first be brought to the teachers at the house before all the people [of God] come in. And let them be examined as to the reason why they have come forward to the faith. And those who bring them shall bear witness for them whether they were able to hear." (Apostolic tradition 16:1-2)

Egeria/Etheria, writing in the fourth century AD, refers to "competents", i.e. those who have made some progress towards being admitted to baptism. She describes the practice of "scrutiny", when these candidates for baptism were brought before the bishop, accompanied by their fathers (i.e. male sponsors), or "mothers" (i.e. female sponsors) - one person of the same gender for each candidate to be baptised. These were the "godparents". Those who were baptised answered for themselves, but their sponsors, i.e. godparents, "vouched" for their suitability to be admitted to baptism. (Quadragesima is another word for the pre-Easter Lenten fast.)

"Moreover, I must write how they are taught who are baptised at Easter. Now he who gives in his name, gives it in on the day before Quadragesima, and the priest writes down the names of all; this is before the eight weeks which I have said are kept here at Quadragesima. And when the priest has written down the names of all, after the next day of Quadragesima, that is, on the day when the eight weeks begin, the chair is set for the bishop in the midst of the great church, that is, at the martyrium, and the priests sit in chairs on either side of him, while all the clergy stand. Then one by one the competents are brought up, coming, if they are males (viri) with their fathers, and if females (feminae), with their mothers. Then the bishop asks the neighbours of every one who has entered concerning each individual, saying: "Does this person lead a good life, is he obedient to his parents, is he not given to wine, nor deceitful?" making also inquiry about the several vices which are more serious in man. And if he has proved him in the presence of witnesses to be blameless in all these matters concerning which he has made inquiry, he writes down his name with his own hand. But if he is accused in any matter, he orders him to go out, saying: " Let him amend, and when he has amended then -let him come to the font (lavacrum)." And as he makes inquiry concerning the men, so also does he concerning the women. But if any be a stranger, he comes not so easily to Baptism, unless he has testimonials from those who know him."

The role of godparent in the early church was thus to bring their friend to Christ and teach them the Christian faith, to vouch for them to be admitted to baptised, and to "receive" them from the baptismal font (whence the Greek name anadochos).