Abstract

The catholics of Vandal Africa (V-VI cents.) did not entertain the slightest doubt that the JC is an integral part of Holy Scripture. For the catholics in polemic with the Arian Vandals, the Comma had a probative value both for a Trinitarian faith and, above all, for faith in the divinity of the Holy Spirit, a faith absolutely necessary for the determination of the mystery of the true Church according to the ancient traditional African ecclesiology which goes back to Tertullian and Cyprian. In the religious conflict between the Arian and Catholic churches, the JC was, in the final analysis, an essential identity-factor of the Catholic Christians, who, inasmuch as reborn in the Spirit, perceived themselves as spiritual.