One of the clearest pieces of evidence for transmission rather than parallel development is hidden in the name itself. 'Josaphat' is a phonetic journey from San

One of the clearest pieces of evidence for transmission rather than parallel development is hidden in the name itself. 'Josaphat' is a phonetic journey from Sanskrit Bodhisattva: Bodhisattva → Pali Bodhisatta → Arabized as Budhasaf/Yudasaf → Georgian Iodasaph → Greek Ioasaph → Latin Josaphat. Each hop is a small phonetic drift, but the end result is that a Christian saint's name is literally a corrupted form of 'Bodhisattva'. The name carries its own transmission history. That kind of evidence is much harder to wave away than narrative parallels alone, since parallel stories could theoretically arise independently, but the name connection is essentially a paper trail.