In this verse Jesus prays to the Father (verses 1,5) for the disciples.

Them … those you gave me refers to Jesus’ immediate disciples. In verse 20 Jesus will pray for future believers.

The world is used here again for those who oppose God (see comments at 1.10). The fact that Jesus is not praying for the world is emphatic in the Greek sentence structure.

The contrast between the positive I pray for them and the negative I do not pray … but for those … presents some complications in translation. The contrast is particularly difficult because them in the first sentence refers to those you gave me, who are specified in the second sentence. As a result, it may be necessary to restructure the relationships, for example, “I pray for the men you gave me because they belong to you; I do not pray for the people of the world.” It is also possible to restructure this sentence in the following way; “I do not pray for the people of the world; rather, I pray for the people you gave me, because they belong to you.”

Because they belong to you explains why Jesus prays for the disciples. How is it possible to reconcile the fact that Jesus does not pray for “the world” and the fact that God loved “the world” and gave his Son (3.16)? According to Johannine theology, the coming of the Son into “the world” is not only the means whereby “the world” is saved, but also the means by which it is judged. So “the world” consists of those people who refuse Jesus and align themselves with the power of Satan. From the viewpoint of Johannine theology, there is no hope of salvation for “the world”; the only hope is that “the world” will be proved wrong and defeated. However, even though “the world” is hostile to Jesus and his followers, the precise reason for the disciples’ existence in “the world” is that they may proclaim the message of salvation to “the world.” In the same way that the presence of Jesus brought either salvation or judgement, so will the word of the disciples. Those who believe will also become Jesus’ disciples, while those who will not believe remain as part of “the world” in opposition to God. The last part of this verse is similar to part of verse 6 (they belonged to you, and you gave them to me).

Relating the clause because they belong to you to what precedes presents a problem. A literal rendering of verse 9 may suggest that God gave these people to Jesus, because they already belonged to God, but that is not the meaning in this passage. Because they belong to you must be directly related to the prayer. It may be necessary to say, for example, “I pray for them because they belong to you.”

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 .