diff --git a/apache-commons-math.changes b/apache-commons-math.changes
index 23ac2a6..f525db0 100644
--- a/apache-commons-math.changes
+++ b/apache-commons-math.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tue May 15 12:56:51 UTC 2018 - fstrba@suse.com
+
+- Build with source and target 8 to prepare for a possible removal
+  of 1.6 compatibility
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Thu Sep 14 13:31:34 UTC 2017 - fstrba@suse.com
 
diff --git a/apache-commons-math.spec b/apache-commons-math.spec
index aa21013..26dcc03 100644
--- a/apache-commons-math.spec
+++ b/apache-commons-math.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #
 # spec file for package apache-commons-math
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2017 SUSE LINUX GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany.
+# Copyright (c) 2018 SUSE LINUX GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany.
 #
 # All modifications and additions to the file contributed by third parties
 # remain the property of their copyright owners, unless otherwise agreed
@@ -29,10 +29,11 @@ Source0:        http://www.apache.org/dist/commons/%{base_name}/source/%{short_n
 Patch0:         commons-math3-3.6.1-notests.patch
 BuildRequires:  ant
 BuildRequires:  ant-junit
+BuildRequires:  java-devel >= 1.8
 BuildRequires:  javapackages-local
 BuildRequires:  javapackages-tools
 BuildRequires:  junit
-Requires:       java >= 1.6.0
+Requires:       java >= 1.8
 Provides:       java(commons-math3:commons-math3) = %{version}
 BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build
 BuildArch:      noarch
@@ -55,8 +56,8 @@ This package contains the API documentation for %{name}.
 
 %build
 export CLASSPATH=$(build-classpath ant-junit junit)
-ant -Dant.build.javac.source=1.6 -Dcompile.source=1.6 \
-    -Dant.build.javac.target=1.6 -Dcompile.target=1.6 \
+ant -Dant.build.javac.source=8 -Dcompile.source=8 \
+    -Dant.build.javac.target=8 -Dcompile.target=8 \
     -Dmaven.mode.offline=true -Dmaven.test.skip=true \
     -lib %{_datadir}/java -Dbuild.sysclasspath=first \
 	jar javadoc