For them is literally “for the nation,” but in the English structure a pronoun is more natural here. It may be necessary to fill out the ellipsis in the expression and not only for them, for example, “he was going to die, but not only for them.” The contrast in not only … but also may be expressed in some languages as “it is true he was going to die for them; it is also true he was going to….”

Into one body is literally “into one” (Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Moffatt), and is translated “in unity” by Jerusalem Bible, and “into one family” by Phillips. New English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Zürcher Bibel, and Luther all have the idea of “to bring together,” without explicitly mentioning “into one.” La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée has “in one (body).” In many languages it is impossible to conserve the figure of body; hence, one must often say “to bring them together so that they would be just like one group” or “to bring them together so that they would act as if they were one person.”

The Greek phrase translated children of God is used elsewhere in this Gospel only in 1.12. The entire phrase the scattered children of God, in a Jewish context alone, would refer to the gathering together of the scattered Israelites to their own land. In the present context, the reference is to the Gentiles who were destined to believe in Jesus Christ. All the scattered people of God must often be broken into two distinct expressions, “all the people of God who are scattered in various places.” However, a literal translation of scattered may suggest that someone had somehow thrown the people into various places. Therefore, in some languages it may be better to say “all the children of God who were living in different lands.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .