mountainman

Would you care to define what you mean by "Gnostic"?

Rick Van Vliet

Well, little "g" gnostic means belief in knowledge.

There's also a religion, capital "G" Gnostic, that competed with Christianity in the second century, that thought the Hebrew God of the Hebrew Bible/Torah was an evil creator god, and the kindly Father of Jesus was another god entirely. Strangely, it was completely compatibale with those "genuine" letters of Paul. All of which were included in Marcion's Gnostic Bible in 130CE. So one could say it goes back to the mid first century.

No evil Hebrew Gods in Thomas, no superntural creatures at all, and this isn't hell, it's heaven.

mountainman

Thanks for the clarification. I essentially agree with this cut down version.

What I am looking at here is the fact that unwanted copies of books authored by these gnostics (including the Gnostic Gospels and "Acts") appear to be turning up at the Oxyrhynchus rubbish dumps alongside the "Orthodox Canonical Books" of their competitors.

The "Gospel of Thomas" is generally attributed to a "Gnostic authorship" by most commentators. Why do you suggest this is not Gnostic?