Dr. Bock has not properly understood my position as outlined in
The End of Biblical Studies (2007). My position is that the manuscripts
of Josephus are from the Middle Ages. I was not referring to the NT
manuscripts.

This is not news, but it is not emphasized sufficiently when
arguing about the utility of Josephus in reconstructing the life of Jesus.
The Catholic scholar, John P. Meier (A Marginal Jew: Rethinking
the Historical Jesus, Volume 1, The Roots of the Problem and the Person
[New York: Doubleday, 1991] p. 100, n. 6 ) admits: “As with Josephus,
so with Tacitus our observations must be tempered by the fact that
the earliest manuscript of the Annals comes from the 11th century.”

However, I indeed have argued in great detail that trying to reconstruct the "original" of any NT text is futile from any of our extant manuscripts, which date from the second century and forward. I also have an entire chapter in The End of Biblical Studies explaining why any reconstruction of the life of Jesus is futile and laden wit theology rather than being the fruit of pure historical inquiry.