Feldman received his undergraduate degree (as valedictorian) from
Trinity College in 1946 and his
master's degree the following year. In 1951, he received his doctoral degree in
philology from
Harvard University for his dissertation ''
Cicero's Concept of Historiography''. He returned to Trinity College as a teaching fellow and eventually served as classics instructor before leaving for
Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1953. Feldman began teaching at Yeshiva University as an instructor in 1955, became an assistant professor in 1956, an associate professor in 1961 and, in 1966, a professor of classics. In 1993, he was appointed Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University. A fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, he received numerous other fellowships and awards. These include a
Ford Foundation Fellowship (1951–1952), a
Guggenheim Fellowship (1963), a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1969), and a grant from the
American Philosophical Association (1972). He was named a senior fellow of the
American Council of Learned Societies in 1971, a Littauer Foundation fellow in 1973, and
Institute for Advanced Study fellow in 1994. In 1981, he received the
American Philological Association award for "Excellence in Teaching the Classics". Additionally, he was selected to conduct seminars for college teachers by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Feldman was a co-recipient of the 2014
National Jewish Book Award in the Scholarship category for editing
Outside the Bible with
James L. Kugel and
Lawrence H. Schiffman. ==Thought and writings==