Was Jesus a socialist?

I'm not sure if Jesus was a socialist, but certainly many early socialists were inspired by Jesus's teachings at the sermon on the mount. The catholic saint Thomas Moore was one of the first to take the ideas in Matthew 5 and build them into a manifesto of sorts. His work 'Utopia' is one of the pioneering works that helped establish some of the founding principles of socialism.

For all that Socialism is misunderstood and maligned on these boards, the fact remains that most of its 19th and 20th century leaders were not inspired by the idea of building a police state, but by a true desire to allieviate the poverty and suffering that sprang up alongside the industrial revolution.

Robert Owen, the Welshman whose ideas are crucial to any understanding of the development of Utopian Socialism wanted to create a better world based on social justice, opportunity, and communal kinship.

Karl Marx, despite the astrocities committed by Stalin in his name, was profoundly concerned about the plight of working people, as was his friend and colleague Engels.

In my opinion true socialism was inspired by Jesus, rather than the other way around.