"… the main contrast between the canonical gospels and the gnostic gospels is that the former are primarily narrative, with teaching interspersed within an overall storyline reaching a definite climax, while the latter (such as 'Thomas') consist simply of a collection of saying, arranged as much for the purposes of meditation or memorization as for any thematic sequence or continuity. To that extent, as I have often said in the past, the main difference is that, whereas the canonical gospels are news, 'Thomas' and the others are advice … though the gnostic documents do sometimes call themselves 'gospels' they manifestly belong to a different genre."
N T Wright - Judas and the Gospel of Jesus: Have We Missed the Truth about Christianity
