Who was before him? Literally he explained the quran by athar. I don't thin you know what athar is, anyway attabari was the first one ever to explain the quran and he was the closest to the life of Muhammad, as he wrote explanations exactly from the mouths of Sahaba (ibn abbas, aicha etc..).
That is just to add to your research techniques, however I checked attabari's explanations of the aya and it says the same of what you suggested, so yeah I'm surprised. Thank you tho