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Nag Hammadi 1945. A treasure trove of manuscripts of early Christian writings was discovered. Bits and pieces and full tracts including the infancy gospels of Thomas and of James recounting the life of Jesus as a child. Very interesting reading. I would recommend tracking down a copy of The Complete Gospels edited by Robert J. Miller and featuring these and other gospels including the four that Irenaeus decided to use for the New Testament.
The translation is new, dubbed the Scholar's translation as it takes into account all the latest knowledge about the meaning of the original Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, and Aramaic texts.
The original texts were written in a quite easy to read Greek. It is only the awkwardness of the King James translation, written for another time that makes it difficult to read the books of the New Testament.
And don't forget, most of the early followers believed that Jesus would return soon, establishing a kingdom on earth. There are even references to this quick return in Luke and Mark and the letters of Paul. When Jesus didn't return, and the early followers had pretty much died off, and Jerusalem was destroyed, this caused an incredible amount of stress in the early Christian community leading to the re-writing of the story of Jesus to fit a different interpretation.
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