There is nothing to "suspect" here. Scholars have long known that there were dozens of variants of Christians coming out of the first centiry. Paul and his brand of Christianiy was all but dead by the turn of the first century. It was only Constantine who reivied what was an otherwise dying faith.

Check out my book if you have not already. I discuss these very things. It's also available for free from my website.

https://bit.ly/fwkm1

https://kethmichael.org

Peace.