When it comes to the Jews in the Qur’an, one particularly challenging genre of verses consists of divine declarations said to have been revealed in response to blasphemous statements made by the Jews of Medina. Such is the case with Q 2:97-98. “Say,” the Qur’an commands Muhammad, “‘(He) who is an enemy to Gabriel. It is he who brought it down to your heart with God’s permission, confirming what was sent before it and as a guidance and good news for the believers. (He) who is an enemy to God and His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel and Michael—God is an enemy to those who do not believe.’” Although the Qur’an does not identify the people who consider the angel Gabriel an enemy, Islamic exegesis identifies the speakers as Jews and records the conversation, missing from the Qur’an, that sparked the revelation of God’s response to them. For example, al-Wāḥidī (d. 1075) and Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) report that a group of Medinan Jews, attempting to assess whether Muhammad was in fact a prophet, asked him the name of the angel who brought him God’s revelations. Learning it was Gabriel, the Jews replied, “He is the one who brings war and violence. He is our enemy.” God then sent down Q 2:97-98, declaring that those who make an enemy of Gabriel make an enemy of God as well. The few scholars who have written about Q 2:97-98 appear to have accepted the exegetical claim that the verses reflect actual Jewish enmity for Gabriel. However no evidence of any such Gabriel-focused Jewish antagonism exists. Instead, in the rabbinic sources (e.g., b.Yoma 21b) Gabriel appears as the destroyer of Israel’s enemies, or as a defender of Israel. This paper will attempt to show that Q 2:97-98 is not an accurate report on Jewish attitudes toward Gabriel but a qur’anic polemicization of a rabbinic teaching related to the destruction of the Temple. While the rabbis insisted that despite the destruction and the extended exile, God abandoned neither the Jews nor their covenant with Him, the Qur’an uses the Jews’ words against them to mock this claim. In misunderstanding the Jewish teaching with which the Qur’anic verses here are actually engaging, scholars have misunderstood what purpose the verses serve in the context of Muhammad’s relationship with the Jews.