The Nag Hammadi Library was actually a collection of 52 different manuscriptswritten in coptic, though they are translations of works that were probablly in greek originally (part of Plato's Republic is in it). The biggest part of it was the Gospel of Thomas, which was known before but never in such a complete form.
The Gospel of Thomas is not a gospel in same way as the four canonical gospels. Instead of presenting a narrative of the life of Jesus, it is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, some of which are also found in the canonical gospels. It is known as a Gnostic gospel because the first verse reads:
Quote:
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These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down. And he said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death."
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All this is from
Lost Christianities by Bart Ehrman. I have a book about gnosticism around here somewhere and can post more about it later if i get the time.