 <p>No it is not equivalent</p> <p>If you want to support only jQuery 1.8+ then you can use .addBack() - <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/arunpjohny/Qa87f/3/" rel="nofollow">Demo</a></p> <pre><code>var foo = $some.find(theCriteria).addBack(theCriteria); </code></pre> <p>else you can use .add</p> <pre><code>var foo = $some.find(theCriteria).add($some.filter(theCriteria)); </code></pre> <p>It is not the same because of 2 reasons Demo: <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/arunpjohny/Qa87f/2/" rel="nofollow">Fiddle</a></p> <ul> <li>andSelf() adds back the previous set of elements in your case there are not previous set of elements - this adds the document object to the element set causing undesired results</li> <li>since you are using .find(), you are not filtering the $some object set</li> </ul>