Severe Letter


The Severe Letter or Letter of Tears was a letter written to the Corinthians by the Apostle Paul. It is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2:3-4 and again in 2 Corinthians 7:8: The description does not match First Corinthians, so there are two main theories on the Severe Letter:
  1. The first theory is that the Severe Letter is lost.
  2. The second theory is that the "Severe Letter" is preserved in 2 Corinthians 10–13.
For more discussion on reconstructing Paul's correspondence with the Corinthians, see Second Epistle to the Corinthians.