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The 21-year-old's success also guaranteed Britain a berth in the event at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The Brownlee brothers did not compete, with their focus on this year's World Series competition and the Rio Olympic test event.
Benson completed the event in one hour 48 minutes 31 seconds.
He was ahead of Portugal's Joao Silva (+11 seconds) and Rostyslav Pevtsov (+33secs) of Azerbaijan.
After a strong swim, British team-mates Bishop (16th) and Philip Graves (46th) played a crucial role in helping Benson to the lead during the cycling phase.
During the 10km run he broke free from the chasing pack and although the Leeds-based triathlete was briefly caught by Aleksandr Latin of Estonia he soon re-established his lead.
"I couldn't have done it without Tom and Phil," said Benson. "It was a real team effort. It's a shame we couldn't all get medals - but getting the gold is brilliant."
London 2012 gold medallist Alistair Brownlee and world title-winning brother Jonny are expected to secure further Rio Olympic places for Team GB through performances at the qualification event in Brazil in August.
Benson will now hope to be included in World Series races and the Rio test event in order to enhance his prospects of a place in the squad for the Rio Olympics.
Triathlon, which consisted of a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run in the European Games, is one of three sports included in Baku 2015 which have direct qualification possibilities for next year's Olympics in Brazil.

The game came to life in the second quarter with Tom Grambusch and Marco Miltkau netting for the hosts.
Ireland hit back quickly through Shane O'Donoghue's close-range finish and Alan Southern swept into the German net to level on 30 minutes.
Eugene Magee finished a fine team move to make it 3-2 before Sean Murray tapped in to seal victory.
There was very little to differentiate the two sides in the opening half and the teams went in level at half-time.
Grambusch got the scoreboard ticking in the 19th minute with a fine drag flick to David Harte's left.
Moments later Moritz Trompertz forced a turnover and sent a reverse shot towards goal for Marco Miltkau to get the faintest of touches to take it past Harte.
But 30 seconds later O'Donoghue brought Ireland back into it as he deflected in a shot from close range to leave Tobias Walter with no chance.
Murray did well as he drew Walter before releasing the pass to Sothern on the penalty spot, who slotted into an open goal to equalise.
Magee put Ireland in front in the 34th minute with a phenomenal goal that started with Paul Gleghorne rifling the ball into the sky for O'Donoghue to snatch at pace and fire across the circle to Magee.
Germany continued to rack up the chances and had no fewer than six penalty corners but their shots went either wide or were calmly dealt with by the Green Machine defence.
The game was put to bed by Murray two minutes after Germany had taken off their goalkeeper as he tapped into an open goal.
Ireland opened the tournament with a 4-1 win over Spain before hammering Austria 7-2 on Friday.
Germany: T Walter, M Muller, L Windfeder, M Trompertz, T Herzbruch, JP Rabente, T Grambusch, C Ruhr, M Zwicker (Captain), B Furk, N Wellen.
Subs: J Gomoll, TO Prinz, DE Linnekogel, M Miltkao, J Meyer, F Weinke, M Appel.
Ireland: D Harte, J Jackson, J Bell (Captain), C Cargo, A Sothern, E Magee, S O'Donoghue, J McKee, P Gleghorne, S Loughrey, S Cole.
Subs: J Carr, M Bell, M Nelson, N Glassey, S Murray, J Duncan, L Cole.
Gordon Benson claimed Great Britain's first European Games gold medal with victory in the men's triathlon in Baku, Azerbaijan.
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Ireland fought back from two goals down to beat Germany 4-2 and secure the Hamburg Masters title on Sunday.