Is this another attempt, I wonder, to paint an Essene reformer and philosopher as the central figure in a Greek-style Mystery Cult?

The idea of being dressed in grave-clothes and locked in a tomb is just one of many symbolic 'deaths' undergone by initiates to the higher mysteries. Lazarus might have been meant to be perceived by the Greek reader as an intitiate moving to a higher degree. Later, when Christianity became a religion rather than a cult, and thus about politics rather than enlightenment, a lot of 'awkward' passages were redacted, I imagine. In this case, they've simply tried to recast the event as just another miracle. Only it doesn't fit properly. Apart from anything else, these 'good friends' of Yeshuas' suddenly pop up out of nowhere. If they were that close, surely we'd have heard of them before?