Aminadab-Aram/Adam-Admin-Arni in Luke 3, 33 131 adnotare and excerpere (read, make notes, excerpt)15; then, produce the commentarii (in Greek, hypomnemata), which constitutes the prelimi- nary stage of the text, not yet in its final form16. These procedures were analyzed in detail by Dorandi and, although they cannot be applied to any ancient author indiscriminately, but especially regarding authors who produced erudite works (such as Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, Aulus Gelius, and the aforementioned Pliny and Philodemus), they do offer quite enlightening guidelines17. Luke himself declares at the beginning of his Gospel: Whereas many have undertaken to compile an account (ἀνατάξασθαι διήγησιν) of the facts that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and became servants of the word (καθὼς παρέδοσαν ἡμῖν οἱ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς αὐτόπται καὶ ὑπηρέται γενόμενοι τοῦ λόγου), it seemed good to me also, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning (ἔδοξε κἀμοὶ παρηκολουθηκότι ἄνωθεν πᾶσιν ἀκριβῶς), to write them in order for you (καθεξῆς σοι γράψαι), most excellent Theophilus. (1, 1-3) By not being one of the eyewitnesses, and of those who first came to believe after hearing their testimonies, the author of Luke places himself in a third stage of retelling the events. This is the reason he set for himself the goal of “accurately pursuing” (παρακολουθεῖν ἀκριβῶς) what had been transmitted by other testimonies; in other words, his work depends, as he himself declares, on investigative work that could involve oral re- ports as well as written, along the lines of what other Greek, Latin, or Jewish authors had done. Now, if at other points in his investigation the author had to depend on the collection and confrontation of oral tradition related to the do- ings and sayings of Jesus, regarding the oldest part of the genealogy, that is, the generations prior to David, he or his source would have had to deal with the written sources provided by the Torah or, more specifi- cally, by the LXX, or with another source depending of them. This would 15 Epist. III 5, 10-11: “Post cibum saepe, quem interdiu leuem et facilem ueterum more sumebat, aestate, si quid otii, iacebat in sole, liber legebatur, adnotabat, excerpebatque. Nihil enim legit, quod non excerperet (...). Post solem plerumque frigida lauabatur, deinde gustabat domiebatque minimum; mox quasi alio die studebat in cenae tempus; super hanc liber legebatur, adnotabatur et quidem cursim.” 16 Pliny the Younger said in the aforementioned letter that his uncle, as he died, “left me one hundred and sixty volumes of selections, written on both sides in tiny handwriting, which is why this number has multiplied” (“electorumque commentarios centum sexaginta mihi reliquit, opisthographos quidem et minutissime scriptos; qua ratione multiplicatur hic numerus”, Epist. III 5, 17). 17 T. Dorandi, Le stylet et la tablette (Paris 2000) 27-50, with bibliography, specially V. Nass, “Réflexions sur la méthode de travail de Pline l’Ancien”, RPh 70 (1996) 305-32.