Out of the water implies “walking out of the water.”

Took (Philip) away translates a verb which appears here and in 23.10 (get away), and literally means “snatch away” or “take away by force.” In the present context the idea of force is not involved, but possibly Luke chose this particular verb in order to emphasize the suddenness with which the action took place. In any case the tense of the verb stresses suddenness of action, whether or not this is to be found in the verb stem. Luke does not state how this was accomplished, but the intimation seems to be that in some miraculous fashion Philip was taken bodily away and transported to Ashdod.

As in his Gospel, so in Acts, Luke takes every opportunity to express the joy which one has in discovering the Christian experience, and so he states the official … continued on his way, full of joy. However, the idiom full of joy can rarely be translated literally. Rather, one must have some such expression as “his heart was joyful,” “his heart was very sweet,” or “he was cool in his liver.”

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 .