...the Gnostic presentation of Jesus (setting aside for now the opinions of the historical scholars on the date for the Gnostic texts in comparison to the canonical ones...) fails in a singularly striking way:
What the canonical gospels communicate almost in every paragraph the Gnostic gospels never do -- explain the reason for Jesus crucifixion.
The Gnostic communities were notoriously free of persecution precisely because they posed no political threat to either the Jewish establishment or the Roman one, whereas the disciples of Jesus (and Jesus himself) were so threatening to the status-quo that they were vehemently eradicated wherever possible.
The Gnostic (or New Age, for that matter) picture of Jesus as a kind of Platonic Buddha figure simply can't explain why anyone in power would be threatened by Him; the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, however, provide a picture of Jesus as a Jewish Reformer-Prophet-King who is a constant threat to those in power, and hence crucified.
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