Some of the so-called gnostic stuff may be as old as those books that made it into the NT. We have no original sources for them either, as Dr. Bart Ehrman has pointed out. It is not all second century wierdness. Thomas may even be the mysterious 'Q' or source that was common to Mark and Luke, the proto-gospel. It may not be. The message is not so much who Jesus is or what he did, but what he actually taught. The way. Of course, those with a vested interest in maintaining the "orthodox" version of Christianity have a different view. The first Christians may have been gnostics of a sort. The path to enlightenment was a kind of knowing. I highly recommend this book to anyone who does not already think he has all the answers about the message of Yeshua.