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No.
I am a Christian and I have examined Gnostic writings.
Most Gnostic works are in Coptic and many are in Greek. I translate Greek and Coptic. So I have examined many of them in detail, in the original languages.
The Gnostics were a minor religious group based in Egypt.
They were active primarily in the second and third centuries AD, and were competitors with Christianity (and other religions of the day including the Eleusinian Orgies, Mithras, Mater Magna, Sarapis, Manichaeism, etc.).
They got members by adopting and adapting stories from other religions, so they both borrowed and modified (or created) "Christian" Gospels.
They were actually a minor cult, when compared with the other, competing religions in Egypt at that time. For example, Clement of Alexandria, in his dissertation on non-Christian religions in Egypt, does not directly mention the Gnostics at all.
On the Nag Hammadi Codices
All the codices are fourth century papyrus. The find consists of 12 codices, plus 8 leaves from a 13Th, and contains 52 texts. Duplications mean the number of unique works is 45. The Berlin Papyrus 8502 is grouped with them, although found separately, because of its related contents. The texts were originally written in Greek, and later translated into Coptic, not always very well (e.g. the passage of Plato).
So, yes. I have examined the Gnostic manuscripts, and not by relying on a modern translation.
Their content is fuzzy at best, often incoherent, and at times absurd to the extreme.
They get way more publicity than they deserve.
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Was Gnosticism the original version of Judaism "and" Christianity?
