In some languages it is important to be somewhat more specific than the phrase what had happened would suggest. Therefore one may use “he told them what the angel had said.”

Joppa was about thirty miles from Caesarea.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .