In Greek, verse 31 is one sentence with carried out their orders and got as two participles dependent upon the main verb took. However, most translators tend to make at least one of these participles (usually “took”) into a finite verb; the Good News Translation has made both of them into finite verbs for ease of comprehension.

From Jerusalem to Antipatris would have been a journey of about 40 miles, a difficult distance for foot soldiers to cover during a night’s march. The usual march for a group of soldiers was set at 24 miles, but during the cool of the night they could possibly have covered more distance than they could during the heat of the day on a normal march.

It is important in terms such as got and took to preserve the appropriate geographical point of view. Since in verse 32 the soldiers returned to the fort (that is, to Jerusalem), it would seem that the point of view of the narration was certainly Jerusalem.

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 .