After the Abitur at the grammar school of St. Ingbert, Benedum studied Classical Philology at the University of Saarland from 1957.
In 1966, he was awarded a doctorate PhD in philosophy with a dissertation on the elegiac late work of the Roman poet Ovid.
After his doctorate, Benedum worked as a research assistant at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Gießen, which was headed by Markwart Michler.
On the island Kos, for example, he carried out several excavations to verify the connection of the place with the physician Hippocrates.
At the academy, he was particularly involved with the Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring edition, whose project management he took over.