I'm a newbie to hibernate 3 (haven't worked with older versions) and this discussion did help me understand the difference between get() and load(). Is there any reason to favor one method over the other, besides the application specific considerations ? Is any of the two methods there just for backward compatibility or other reasons ? Thanks in advance. Vikas View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3981827#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...