It's running inside a transaction, yes, and that's part of the EJB spec unless you mark the business method @TransactionAttribute(NOTSUPPORTED) but that doesn't explain where the update is coming from. Since it's probably due to a flush, you can just keep it from flushing by setting flushMode=MANUAL if you're starting an existing conversation or bu calling Conversation.instance.changeFlushMode(FlushModeType.MANUAL) if you're just in a temporary conversation. I just discovered this myself, so maybe I'm suggesting the wrong approach, but you can always try it out. Probably not related, but it also looks strange that you're using createNamedQuery and passing it HQL. You should be using createQuery instead. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3982717#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...