Down below you wrote:
"The name of gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden knowledge (esoteric knowledge) that only a few may possess."
"Only a few"? Meaning gnosticism is a religion for the elite few? in other words the intellegensia who think they're a cut above the so-called ignorant masses?
Whereas early Christianity (the orthodox kind) appealed to the "ignorant masses," the Roman slaves, the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, by giving them hope, not a lifelong quest for so-called secret knowledge.