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:
The first theory is that the Severe Letter is lost. The second theory is that the "Severe Letter" is preserved in 2 Corinthians 10–13.THE SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS, from "An Introduction to the New Testament", By Edgar J. Goodspeed, 1937New Testament Letter Structure, from Catholic Resources by Felix Just, S.J.
For more discussion on reconstructing Paul's correspondence with the Corinthians, see Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
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