Forgot where I found this, but it’s a good explanation.
“In ancient Greek and Roman civilization, marriages were private agreements between individuals and families. Community recognition of a marriage was largely what qualified it as a marriage. The state had only limited interests in assessing the legitimacy of marriages. Normally civil and religious officials took no part in marriage ceremonies, nor did they keep registries. There were several more or less formal ceremonies to choose from (partly interchangeable, but sometimes with different legal ramifications) as well as informal arrangements.”
Interesting. Wonder when churches starting caring about marriages.
A lot of genealogical information “going way back” can be found in church records.
Same was true in Israel. People would have thought it really weird to get the State involved.
Yeah, but the Greeks/Romans didn't have government and employee benefits mandated by law.
That's the fly in the ointment.
Zactly. The ancient marriages were formalized contract with terms and conditions for expected behavior and outcomes agreed upon as a result of their unions.
Modern licensing sought to provide some equity in marriage or the dissolution of unions entered into but failing to spell out terms and conditions of their contract.
PLEASE!
verbatum...
Common-law marriage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage
History
In ancient Greek and Roman civilization, marriages were private agreements between individuals and families. Community recognition of a marriage was largely what qualified it as a marriage. The state had only limited interests in assessing the legitimacy of marriages. Normally civil and religious officials took no part in marriage ceremonies, nor did they keep registries. There were several more or less formal ceremonies to choose from (partly interchangeable, but sometimes with different legal ramifications) as well as informal arrangements. (you ended the "quote" there, but here is the rest) It was relatively common for couples to cohabit with no ceremony; cohabiting for a moderate period of time was sufficient to make it a marriage. Cohabiting for the purpose of marriage carried with it no social stigma.[