Re: in scripture, every detail is important

Well, it's a long time since I read Scott Brown's seminal volume on the fragment (Mark's Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith's Controversial Discovery, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005), and I've forgotten what he made of it; but a linen cloth was used to wrap a corpse, so maybe the suggestion is of a death and spiritual rebirth into new life, perhaps accompanied by a ritual such as baptism. Of course, we must distinguish various questions: (1) what did the text mean to those who first heard it? (2) is the meaning they placed upon the events depicted accurate? (3) are any of the events portrayed likely to have actually happened? Perhaps I should confine myself to the last question for the moment, and just say that I don't think any of it is probable. Of course, I don't in any case believe that a Jewish rabbi could literally resurrect someone who had been clinically dead for some time, but this is just due to my personal philosophical commitments. There is an enormous temptation to project onto the historical figure of Jesus one's own (very modern) hobbyhorses. I even once read a scholar interpet Mark 9:42 as demonstrating Jesus' opposition to "child abuse" (which is nonsense). The most persuasive portrait of Jesus I have read was that of Geza Vermes, in volumes such as The Authentic Gospel of Jesus. His Jesus is very Jewish (in the religious sense), and I just can't personally see such a figure approving of pederasty.