Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926, Feldman earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Trinity College before receiving a doctoral degree in classical philology from Harvard University. He joined YU as an instructor in humanities and history in 1955, was appointed a full professor of classics in 1966 and subsequently was named the Abraham Wouk Professor of Classics and Literature.
A specialist in Hellenistic-Jewish Studies, he published extensively on Josephus and Philo, as well as on the nature of Jewish life in the Western Diaspora during the Second Temple Period.
He wrote hundreds of scholarly articles and numerous books, including Scholarship on Philo and Josephus, 1937–1962; Josephus and Modern Scholarship, 1937–1980; Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian; Studies in Hellenistic Judaism; and Studies in Josephus’ Rewritten Bible.
