[according to J. Galot] Because verse twelve mentions
humans becoming children of God, a plural reading in verse thirteen would introduce
a tautology. Thus, argues Galot, the singular provides a better development of
the thought; the Word gives humans the authority to become children of God,
because the Word has been born of God.
While Galot’s examination of the evidence is
comprehensive and persuasive, it is not clear how a tautology is problematic in
the gospel’s prologue, which is replete with repetition. Furthermore, not a single
ancient Greek manuscript attests to the singular reading: the vast majority of
witnesses, including the Bodmer papyri, support the plural, and with regard to
internal criteria, it is much easier to imagine a scribal alternation intended
to promote the virginal conception than to envision such evidence being later
eliminated. (Joan Cecelia Campbell, Kinship Relations in the Gospel of John [The
Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 42; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
Biblical Association of America, 2007], 50-51)