Seek to See Him
It is most probable that the Valentinians, like the Manichaeans and the Naassenes, at least were acquainted with Thomas and incorporated some of its traditions into their works perhaps because it contains a negative world view and stresses "knowledge" as part of its soteriological scheme.But gnostic use does not predicate gnostic origins. We should be speaking of an influx of traditions found in Thomas into Gnosticism, not the influx of Gnosticism into Thomas. The future of research on possible connections between the Gospel of Thomas and Gnosticism should be moving in the direction of exploring the influences that this non-gnostic Gospel's ideology may have had on emerging second century gnostic systems.