How do you determine if a story is fact or fiction?

Answer 1

As this question was asked in a religious category, I will try to provide some of the answers useful for judging religious stories. However, the same principles often apply to non-religious stories.

Science

If a story so contradicts accepted science that even a miracle could not explain it, then the story is fiction. An example is the first creation story in Genesis, which says that God created the light of day on day1, but did not create the sun, moon and stars until day 4. He even created plants and grass before the sun, when the temperature must have been close to absolute zero.

Parallels

If a story in the Bible closely parallels older stories from the same region, it is probably derived from those older stories and therefore really factual. For example, the story of Noah's Flood closely parallels the story of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Doublets and multiple versions

If there are two or more different versions of the same story in the Bible, then one or both of them must be fiction. Just a few examples:

• Noah's Flood
  There are actually two slightly different stories of Noah's Flood in the Bible, so cleverly woven together as to appear just one, slightly complicated story. When Genesis was being redacted, the followers of each story were not willing to give up their special story, so both were included. One clear example of the doublets is in Genesis 6:19-20, where Noah is told to take two of every animal onto the Ark, and in Genesis 7:1, where he is told to take two of every unclean animal, but seven of every clean animal. Similarly, one story has the flood subsiding in just forty days, while the other says that it lasted one year.
  
  The two different authors of the biblical stories of Noah are called the Priestly source and the Yahwist. The verses attributed to the Priestly author are: Genesis 6:9-22, 7:6, 7:8-9, 7:11, 7:13-16a, 7:18-21, 7:24, 8:1-2a, 8:3b-5, 8:7, 8:13a, 8:14-19, 9:1-17. The verses attributed to the Yahwist are: Genesis 6:5-8, 7:1-5, 7:7, 7:10, 7:12, 7:16b-17, 7:22-23, 8:2b-3a, 8:6, 8:8-12, 8:13b, 8:20-22.
• Abraham
  Genesis gives two parallel stories of Abraham where he got tangled up in his deviousness. First he told the Pharaoh that his wife Sarah was his sister, for fear that the Pharaoh would kill him in order to have sex with her (Genesis 12:13), only to be found out and banished from Egypt. Later (Genesis 20:2ff), this time for fear that Abimelech, king of Gerar, would kill him in order to have sex with his by now quite elderly wife (Sarah was now over 90 years old and stricken with age), Abraham again said that Sarah really was his sister.
• Isaac
  The story of Isaac so closely parallels that of Abraham that it even has a parallel story in which he tried to pass his wife Rebekah off as his sister to the same king, once again for fear that the king would kill him in order to have sex with her (Genesis 26:6-11). It is likely that the entire story of Isaac was copied from that of Abraham
• The two nativity stories of Jesus.
  The two nativity stories, in Matthew and Luke, are so mutually incompatible that at least one, and probably both, must be a literary creation by the authors of the gospels. The position of most liberal scholars is that the stories of the birth of Jesus are simply not based on fact, and that there was no virgin birth, no angels and no wise men or shepherds who came to worship Jesus.
• Genealogies of Jesus
  There are two genealogies of Joseph, father of Jesus, both demonstrating that he was descended from King David. In Matthew, Joseph's father is Jacob, while in Luke, Joseph's father is Heli.

Structure

If the story structure is so artificial that it can only have been fiction, then it was fiction. A few examples are:

• Genealogies of Jesus
  There are two genealogies of Joseph, father of Jesus, both demonstrate by use of numerology that Jesus was destined for greatness.
  Matthew demonstrated that there were 14 generations: from Abraham to David; from David to Josiah; from Josiah to Jesus. To do this, the author had to ignore 3 kings in the Old Testament and have David in the preceding (as 14) and following (as 1) groups, but not so Josiah.
  Luke had great men occur in multiples of 7 generations starting from Adam, with: Enoch at 7; Abraham at 21; David at 35; Jesus at 77. It also had: Joseph at 42 and 70; Jesus (Jose) at 49. To do this, the author had to insert his own fictitious people into the Old Testament list: Kainan at 13; Admin at 28.
• The first gospel
  Mark's Gospel is divided into two divisions that mirror each other quite uncannily.
  The first division begins with John explaining the coming of Jesus, followed by the baptism and the voice of God from heaven, and ends with Jesus predicting the passion story. The second division begins with the Transfiguration of Jesus and the voice of God from heaven, and ends with his passion story, followed by the young man explaining the departure of Jesus. The coincidences are so improbable, including the improbable sequence, that the possibility exists that some important events in the story of Jesus are fiction.
• Good Friday
  Mark organised the account of the death of Jesus in a twenty-four hour cycle, neatly divided into eight three-hour segments, beginning with the Passover meal at 6:00 o'clock on the evening before his arrest. After the traditional three-hour meal, he went to pray on the Garden of Gethsemene, but three times (once each hour) had to berate the disciples for falling asleep. He was arrested at midnight, then taken before the Sanhedrin at 3:00 oclock in the morning - the start of the watch known as the cockcrow. Then, three times (once each hour), Peter denied Jesus. At 6:00 o'clock, when it was morning, Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate, and was placed on the cross at the third hour - 9:00 o'clock in the morning. When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth for 3 hours, then Jesus died. He was buried before 6:00 and the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

Historical accuracy

If the story contains significant historical inaccuracies, then it is probably fiction. Some examples are:

• The story of Abraham tells about Abraham walking to the land of the Philistines, nearly a thousand years before the Philistines arrived in the Levant.
• The story of the Exodus tells of cities that had not yet been built, if it took place in 1440 BCE.
• The Book of Daniel confuses Kings Darius and Xerxes, along with many other historical errors.
• The Book of Esther also contains many historical errors.
• Luke's Gospel says that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 BCE, but also during the census of Quirinius, which took place ten years after his death, in 6 CE.

In other instances, you may find sufficient reasons to believe that a particular story actually is true. Undoubtedly some stories in the Bible are true, or at least contain truth. And in some cases you will decide to suspend judgement, because a story is sufficiently credible that it might have been true, but there is no extra-biblical evidence to support it.

Answer 2

Since this question was placed in a religious category, this Answer will attempt to provide information useful for judging religious stories (specifically, the Hebrew Bible). However, the same principle often applies to secular stories.

Many Biblical narratives were doubted due to lack of outside evidence, and were later substantiated by Archaeology. 1) Before the late 1800s, the Hittites were known only from the Bible, and many readers said that they were fictitious.
In 1876 a dramatic discovery changed this view. A. H. Sayce, a British scholar, found inscriptions carved on rocks in Turkey. Ten years later, more clay tablets were found in Turkey at Boghaz-koy. German expert Hugo Winckler uncovered five temples, a fortified citadel and several big sculptures. Boghaz-koy turned out to have been the Hittite capital city.
2) Until recently, no evidence outside the Bible attested to King David's existence. Some people questioned his existence. In 1993, an archaeologist named Dr. Avraham Biran and his team, digging at Tell Dan, discovered a black basalt stele, containing Aramaic inscriptions. Two of the lines included the phrases "The King of Israel" and "House of David." This discovery has forced critics to reconsider their view of the historicity of the Davidic kingdom. In 1994 more pieces were found, with inscriptions referring to Jehoram, the son of Ahab, ruler over Israel, and Ahaziah, who was "The ruler over the House of David." Dr. Hershel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeological Review states, "The stele brings to life the biblical narrative in a dramatic way."

3) At one time the 39 kings of ancient Israel and Judah were known only from the Biblical books. Some readers charged fabrication. But then came to light the royal cuneiform records of many Assyrian kings, mentioning the kings of Israel and Judah, including Omri, Ahab, Jehu, Menahem, Hoshea, Pekah, Hezekiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoram and Jehoshaphat.

4) The Assyrian king Sargon was known only from the Bible account (Isaiah 20:1). This Bible verse was discounted as of no historical value. Then excavations revealed the ruins of Sargon's palace at Khorsabad, with many inscriptions. Sargon is now one of the best known of the Assyrian kings.

5) In 1934-39, excavations were conducted at ancient Mari on the Euphrates River (present-day Iraq). They found that ancient towns were named after the ancestors (Genesis ch.11) of Abraham:
The "city of Nahor" was found near the city of Haran which still exists to this day. Equally clear signs of early Hebrew residence appear in the names of other towns nearby: Serug (Assyrian Sarugi), Terah (Til Turakhi, "Mound of Terah"), and Peleg (Paliga, on the Euphrates near the mouth of the Habur).

6) Some people claimed that the Babylonian captivity never happened.
However, in 1935-38, important finds were made 30 miles from Jerusalem at a site thought to be ancient Lachish. Lachish was one of the cities recorded in the Bible as being besieged by the Babylonians at the same time as the siege of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 34:7).
Twenty-one pottery fragments were found in the latest pre-exilic levels of the site. Called the Lachish Ostraca, they were written during the Babylonian siege. Some of them are exchanges between the military commander and an outlying observation post, vividly picturing the final days of Judah's struggle against Babylon.
Since the 1930s, there has been more unearthing of Babylonian texts which describe the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The historical fact of the Babylonian captivity is now undisputed.

7) The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser the 3rd shows Jehu, king of Israel, bowing before the Assyrian king.

8) Tablets from the time of Tiglath-Pileser state that he received tribute from Jehoahaz of Judah. This is the full name of Ahaz (2 Kings 16:7).

9) A limestone relief from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh shows the siege of Lachish.

10) The cylinder of Nabonidus, last ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, shows that his son Belshazzar was co-regent with him (Daniel 5; 7:1; 8:1). Some people had previously denied Belshazzar's very existence.

Archaeological finds, such as the Ugarit documents and those of Nuzu, Mari, Susa, Ebla, and Tel el-Amarna, have repeatedly caused doubters to retract specific claims. The entire social milieu portrayed in the Torah, once criticized as anachronistic, has been shown to be historically accurate, including customs of marriage, adoption, contracts, inheritance, purchases, utensils, modes of travel, people's names and titles, etc. Professor Gleason Archer Ph.D of Harvard University states: "In case after case where historical inaccuracy was alleged as proof of late and spurious authorship of the biblical documents, the Hebrew record has been vindicated by the results of recent excavation, and condemnatory judgment has been proved to be without foundation."

"Whoever wrote the narrative of Joseph was quite familiar with Egyptian life, Egyptian literature and culture. In particular he was expertly informed concerning the Egyptian royal court" (Prof. Alan Sherman).

When the French archaeologist Marcel Dieulefoy excavated Susa, he stated that the author of Esther must have been closely familiar with the details of the city and the royal palace, which by 1900 had been buried for 2300 years.
It was asked how Cyrus' famous proclamation could be dated "the year one" (Ezra 1:1), seeing as it was made in the 21st year of his reign. But then archaeologists found inscriptions stating that when Cyrus conquered Babylon, they began to count the years from that date.

Some saw as "unlikely" the royal curse in Ezra 6:12 made by Darius. But inscriptions were found in which more terrible curses were proclaimed by Assurbanipal, Sennacherib, Sargon and other kings.

Some people questioned the narrative of how the Judean king Menashe was captured by the Assyrians. But in the ruins of Kuyundshik was found an inscription by Esarhaddon, enumerating 22 foreign kings that he and Assurbanipal captured, including Menashe king of Judah.

The destruction of Sennacherib's army at the walls of Jerusalem was denied by some. But then it was found that Berosus and Herodotus both state that Sennacherib's military campaign in Judea ended in plague and defeat. It should not surprise us that the Assyrians themselves didn't record their own losses.

The existence of the Assyrian king Pul (2 Kings 15:19) was denied. But a tablet, now in the British Museum and dated the year 22 of Darius, states that Tiglat-Pileser and Pul are the same person.

It was claimed that the camel hadn't been domesticated in Abraham's time. But the Canophorin tablet, dating from 18th century BCE gives a list of fodder for camels and other household animals. And a cylinder seal from Mesopotamia, dating from the patriarchal era, shows riders sitting on camels.

The term "achol et kaspeinu" ("our money was eaten," Genesis 31:15) is spoken by Rachel and Leah concerning an inheritance from their father Laban. This term is found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Five documents have been unearthed in which 18th century BCE Akkadian marriage contracts use this exact terminology, in the same context.

The names Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Laban, Balaam and Joseph were used in the Patriarchal period and dropped out of usage thereafter. These names appear in archaeological inscriptions from that period and no later period.

Joseph is sold for twenty pieces of silver. That was the accurate price of a slave in Joseph's time, and at no other time. Slaves were cheaper beforehand, and they got increasingly expensive later. How would a later redactor know the right price?

And for those who would like a little more:

• Ahab, king of Israel, is identified in the Kurkh Monolith inscription of Shalmaneser the 3rd, which describes the Battle of Qarqar and mentions the "soldiers of Ahab the Israelite."
• Two imprints of the seal of Baruch ben Neriah, a scribe in the time of Jeremiah, were discovered in 1975 and 1996. They read "Of Berachyahu son of Neriyahu the scribe."
• Darius I, king of Persia, mentioned in the books of Haggai, Zechariah and Ezra, is the author of the famous Behistun Inscription.
• Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, was king of Assyria. His name survives in his own writings, as well as in those of his son Ashurbanipal.
• Hezekiah, king of Judah, is mentioned in an inscription of Sennacherib. A signet-seal was also found bearing Hezekiah's name and title.
• Hoshea, king of Israel, was put into power by Tilgath-Pileser the 3rd, king of Assyria, as recorded in the royal annals, found in Calah.
• Jehoash, king of Israel, is mentioned in records of Adad-nirari the 3rd of Assyria as "Jehoash of Samaria."
• Jehoiachin, King of Judah, was taken captive to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar first captured Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:15). Texts from Nebuchadnezzar's southern palace record the rations given to "Jehoiachin king of the Judeans" (Ya'ukin sar Ya'udaya).
• Johanan was high priest during the reign of Darius II. His name is found in Nehemiah 12:22 and also in a letter from the Elephantine Papyri.
• Manasseh, king of Judah, is mentioned in the writings of Esarhaddon, who lists him as one of the kings who had brought him gifts and aided his conquest of Egypt.
• Menahem, king of Israel, is recorded in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser to have paid tribute to him.
• Omri, king of Israel, is mentioned on the Mesha Stele.
• Pekah, who became king of Israel after assassinating Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:25), is mentioned in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser the 3rd.
• Sanballat, governor of Samaria and the leader of the opposition which Nehemiah encountered during the rebuilding of the walls around the Temple in Jerusalem, is mentioned in the Elephantine Papyri.
• Taharqa, pharaoh of Egypt, is mentioned in 2 Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9. Several contemporary sources mention him and fragments of three statues bearing his name were excavated at Nineveh. He built a temple at Kawa and describes his reign in one of the Kawa stela.
• Tattenai, governor of "Beyond the River" (Ezra 5:6) during the reign of Darius I, is known from contemporary Babylonian documents.

Answer 3

In order to determine if a story is factual or fictitious, look at the details of the story and compare them to other evidence, such as science experiments or historical archives.