Essays authored by former Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson and former Southern Seminary missions professor David Sills have been quietly removed from an updated version of Holman Bible Publisher’s CSB Study Bible and the forthcoming NASB Study Bible.
The change, made in early 2025 without a public announcement, came to light after a contributor to the Holman Study Bible was not notified that his notes from the Christian Standard Bible version would be republished and repurposed in the New American Standard Bible version.
Holman is a label of Lifeway Christian Resources, the Nashville-based publishing house of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The new study Bible, scheduled to be published this summer, utilizes the Holman Study Bible’s notes from its present form in the Christian Standard Bible. The CSB was an extensive revision of the previous Holman Christian Standard Bible released in 2004. A full illustrated HCSB study Bible followed in 2006.
Although the CSB remains tied to the SBC through its publisher, the translation committee was comprised of scholars from multiple evangelical denominations, including Baptist, Presbyterian and Anglican. Due to copyright restrictions and royalty clauses in other translations, Lifeway has found it useful to have an “in-house” translation for use by its authors, curriculum and student ministries.
The articles in question, authored by Patterson and Sills, touched on salvation in the Old Testament (Patterson) and the biblical bases and contemporary challenges in missions (Sills).
Patterson was fired by Southwestern’s board of trustees in 2018 for mishandling reports of sexual abuse, financial mismanagement and a litany of other longstanding complaints dating back decades.
Sills was forced to resign from Southern Seminary for his role in an extramarital relationship with his former missions student, the late Jennifer Lyell. Lyell later relayed to Southern Seminary administration that the relationship was abusive and went public with that allegation in 2019. She worked at Lifeway Christian Resources at the time before her resignation due to health-related issues she attributed to the stress and trauma of the alleged abuse and its fallout.
Lyell’s death in June 2025 added a tragic layer to the ongoing litigation filed by David and Mary Sills against the SBC and Southern Seminary for defamation. BNG has reported extensively on the lawsuit, including a treasure trove of discovery documents.
A former Lifeway executive, speaking to BNG on background, verified via communication with Lifeway’s Bible team that the articles by Sills and Patterson were removed “a long time ago,” despite the 2025 publication date listed on Lifeway’s website for the updated CSB Study Bible. Yet 2018 editions of the study Bible still contain the articles and notes from the two men.