First we must clearly define what a genuine Gnostic is. The word comes from ancient Greek (Gnosis), and means Divine (i.e. Mystical / Spiritual) experiential KNOWLEDGE of Truth / God (i.e. the “Supreme Power”, or the “ALL”. Thus a genuine Gnostic is one who has such “first-hand” Divine KNOWLEDGE of God. (N.B. NOT mere 'beliefs' and 'theories'!)
Jesus is the very manifestation of God, it's not that He has fist hand knowledge of God any more than I have first hand knowledge of me. He is the Divine, He is the Logos, He is The truth not someone who has a knowledge of it, He is the embodiment of it.
It's just as though John's gospel had not been written sometimes.
The question is: was Jesus a Gnostic? If what we are told in the New Testament is true, then obviously Jesus must have been a true Gnostic, as must ALL the other great Prophets and Masters of the Old Testament – not to mention the many other great Masters such as Siddhartha (Buddha), Krishna, Mohammed, Zarathushtra, Nanak, etc. etc.
Feel free to call these guys gnostics if you wish.
To believe that God would only reveal Himself to one ‘clan’ (or ‘race’ of people (i.e. the Hebrews/Jews) demonstrates the typical blindness and ignorance of exoteric religion!
Yet God himself says He did just this:
Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: Deuteronomy 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
To deny this demonstrates stubborness and blindness to the words of Jehovah.
It is claimed that the “Israelites” are the “chosen people of God.” This claim is, indeed, true – but again we have to understand what this name or “title” actually means in the ancient Hebrew. The term ISRAEL comes from three Hebrew roots: ’ish (= a Spiritual ‘being’ / ‘human’ ra’eh (= ‘seeing’ / ’vision’ and ’el (= ‘God’ / ‘Supreme Spirit’. Thus, when put together, the word (Israel) means: “Spiritual one(s) who SEE / KNOW God.”
Yisra'el =
God prevails
From the root word
Sarah ( a primitive root word)
contend, have power, contend with, persist, exert oneself, persevere
a) (Qal) to persevere, contend with
and
el -
1) god, god-like one, mighty one
a) mighty men, men of rank, mighty heroes
b) angels
c) god, false god, (demons, imaginations)
d) God, the one true God, Jehovah
2) mighty things in nature
3) strength, power
From this explanation it should be quite obvious that the term does not apply to any particular ‘race’ or ‘clan’ of people, but to ALL those who SEE, and thus KNOW, God, i.e. genuine Gnostics! So certainly the true ‘Israelites’ (i.e. Gnostics) are the 'chosen people' of God!
This explanation does not fit with the etymology of the word Israel which as you can see means contends with or has power with God (so named after Jacob wrestled the Angel of the LORD)