Friend Bryan,
the pabbajjaa sutta that comes before padhaana sutta records the words of Venerable AAnanda. "padhaanaaya gamissaami, ettha me ra~njatii mano" are the last words. It may be possible that at that very time, the Buddha would have thought the words recorded in padhaana sutta. Or it may be possible that these two suttas were connected with the string'padhaana' when the suttas were arranged.
Moreover, you also have to consider how the pali texts were written on ancient days: without specific headings like today, without spaces in between suttas and words - they were continous letters written on palm leaves without almost no clue of full stops, reported speech, headings, sub-headings and so on. Only experts could really sort them out. If you see the ancient palm leaf version of the tipitaka, you will understand this point. I am inclined to accept the third view.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> At the beginning of Buddhaghosa's commentary to the Padhaana sutta (Sutta
> Nipaata 425-449), there is the following statement:
>
>
> ta.m ma.m padhaanapahitatta nti [first words of the padhaana sutta]
> padhaanasutta.m. kaa uppatti? ti aayasmaa aanando pabbajjaasutta.m ni.t.thaapesi. bhagavaa
> gandhaku.tiya.m nisinno cintesi "mayaa chabbassaani padhaana.m patthayamaanena
> dukkarakaarikaa kataa, ta.m ajja bhikkhuuna.m kathessaamii"ti. atha
> gandhaku.tito nikkhamitvaa buddhaasane nisinno "ta.m ma.m padhaanapahitatta"nti
> aarabhitvaa ima.m suttamabhaasi..
>
> Which I have tentatively translated as
>
> What is the source of the padhaanasutta?
> “I will go in order to padhaana (meaning either "to abandon" or "to strive"); in
> that matter
>
> my mind rejoices.” This was spoken by Rev. Ānanda
> in completing the pabbajjaasutta (the previous sutta in the Sn). The Blessed
> One,
>
> seated inside a perfumed hut, thought, “By wishing
> to perform padhaana for six years I have done a
> difficult thing; I will speak of this today to the
> monks.” Then he left the perfumed hut, sat down
> on the Buddha seat and began to preach this sutta
> beginning with the words “ta.m ma.m
> padhaanapahitattaṃ.”Does anyone know why Aananda would have completed the
> pabbajjasutta? or am I translating this wrong?
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated,
>
> Bryan
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>