Is the Gospel of Thomas “Gnostic”? Were these sayings of Jesus attributed to a religious group—“the Gnostics”—who offered an alternate view of early Christianity?This BHD essay summarizes and quotes from a 2015 article by Simon Gathercole, which remains behind the subscription wall.
As to the question "Is the Gospel of Thomas gnostic?"—It depends on what you mean by gnostic. As Prof. Gathercole points out, it does not promote the demiurgic myth—the idea that the God of the Bible is an imperfect emanation of the True God and that this imperfect god (the "demiurge" or "creator") made the imperfect world we live in. So in that sense, no.
At the same time, it does promote the idea that Jesus taught secret knowledge (gnosis—sayings 1-2, 49) reserved for his followers which gives them an already-realized immortality. In that sense it is gnostic, but a gnosticism closer to (for example) Hermetic gnosticism—with Jesus instead of Hermes as the teacher—than to the Christian demiurgic variety.
That's a broad generalization that specialists may want to pick apart, but I stand by it as a generalization.
This BHD essay has been around for a while, but it's just been reposted and this is my first link to it. Also reposted is a translation of the Gospel of Thomas, which I did link to already here.
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