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Saul was a Jew, and so was Jesus.
That's as far as any self-respecting White man needs to go before he can safely disregard the entirety of Christianity.

You're overthinking this, and some of your assumptions are not correct.

Try this. The Christianity you have today, down through most of history, is Pauline Christianity. Paul created it. He wasn't the only sectarian leader; his sectarian theology is the one that won out. There's no need to think Paul was a con artist. He probably believed the things he was saying. But he very explicitly distinguishes himself from the "super' apostles and seems to believe that theological knowledge comes from the sorts of revelatory experiences he had. This is in sharp contrast with the gospel account. Nowhere in Paul's letters does he ever mention a historical Jesus interacting with historical people.

Paul created a very Helenized mystery religion surrounding the figure of Christ, and he evangelized the fuck out of it. He was also a fairly disagreeable person, the sort who very much wants to dominate a conversation.

no, if the words are inspired by God, then they came from God. Directed only means that God specifically wrote it rather than Paul being inspired to write it.

Most of what he wrote is direct quotes of the Old Testament