This was also ʿIkrimah’s view (1).

Muhammad ibn Kaʿb said: “Some Jews came to the Prophet ﷺ—he was sitting with his legs bound by his mantle—and said, ‘Abu al-Qasim, will you not bring us a Book from heaven, as Moses brought tablets that he carried down from Allah?’ Thereupon Allah revealed (2): ‘The People of the Book ask you to bring down to them a Book from the sky; they asked Moses for something even greater than that…’ [al-Nisaʾ 4:153].

Later, a man from the Jews came and said, ‘Allah has sent nothing down to you, nor to Moses, nor to Jesus, nor to anyone at all. Allah has never revealed anything to any human being.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then loosed his wrap (3) and began repeating, ‘Not to anyone at all?!’ (4).

A number of scholars—among them Mujahid—held that the verse was revealed about the polytheists of Quraysh, for they were the ones who denied the very foundation of messengership and rejected the prophets, whereas the People of the Book did not deny the prophethood of Moses and Jesus. This is the view preferred by Ibn Jarir (5), who said: ‘It is the interpretation closest to being correct, because the verse occurs in the context of their story and thus fits them better than it fits the Jews, of whom no mention is made here that would connect the verse to them, in addition to what is related about the one whom Allah in this verse describes as denying that…’