Mark uses here a remarkable word: many suffered “scourging, flogging.” In Mark 5:29, Mark 5:34 the word is used for the suffering of the woman with the discharge of blood. It means “whiplash, stripe” ( Acts 22:24; Hebrews 11:36). In Luke 7:21, as in Mark 3:11, it is used for people who are being healed of stripes. Here we can think of all sorts of plagues and burdens with which a person can be tortured. The word that is chosen suggests an active power that administers the plagues (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7–8: an angel of Satan). Since after verse 10 we hear of the attitude of the unclean spirits when they see Jesus, we may assume that these unclean spirits are the tormenting causes of the plagues that are experienced as “stripes” in people’s lives.1
10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.