Marriage licensing is a relative modern concept.
Marriage has rarely been a self-defined situation, even in Roman times there were laws related to marriage, and the Catholic church used to be a form of law.
“Marriage licensing is a relative modern concept.”
Perhaps the word “licensing” is?
But laws throughout cultures and history acknowledge the marriage relationship, as one man and one woman, and impact inheritance, bigamy, taxation, adultery, adoption, legal testimony, rape and sexual assault, power of attorney whether it is called that or not, visitation rights even as to prison and so forth, child provision responsibilities, etc.
It is a HUGE civil partnership that is unique. It is not spiritual only.
That's utter nonsense.
The Catholic Church began requiring banns of marriage in the early 13th century, it was done in many areas even before this. Banns were explicitly kept as a requirement by Protestants during the reformation.
So, I would hardly call eight hundred years "relatively modern" as it predates nearly all other forms of English Common Law on which American laws were based.
Moreover, prior to VERY RECENTLY, NOBODY would have ever thought to define marriage as anything other than between a man and woman. Even cultures that practiced polygamy never defined marriage as between two members of the same gender.
The whole "government shouldn't be involved in marriage licensing" is simply the latest libertarian attempt to support the left's agenda while pretending not to.