As church orthodoxy began to develop through the second and
third centuries the documents which would make up the New Testament were
revised in order to establish the orthodox view. It was the Christological
debates of the second and third centuries that finally led to the formation
of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Bart Ehrman documents
many of these revisions in his book "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture".
Ehrman writes:
Orthodox scribes not infrequently altered
texts that might be taken to suggest that Jesus became the Son of God
only at his baptism (Luke 3:22; Acts 10:37, 38; John 1:34), or at his
resurrection (Rom 1:4), or at some unspecified moment (e.g., Luke 9:35;
1John 5:18). Correspondingly they changed other passages so as to
highlight their view that Jesus was already the Son of God before his
baptism (Mark 1:1) or even before his coming into the world (Matt 1:18).
By far the most common anti-adoptionist
corruptions simply designate Christ as "God."
Here are a few examples of changes that were
made to the text: