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:

Corrupt Text Original Text
Matthew 1:18
Now the
birth of Jesus Christ happened this way:
Matthew 1:18
Now the
beginning of Jesus Christ happened this way:
Luke 2:33
And
Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
Luke 2:33
And
his father and mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.


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