[java] What does 'Unsupported major.minor version 52.0' mean, and how do I fix it?

Ok so I loosely understand that 52.0 is Java 8, and that the exceptions means that some code is compiled with one version of java, and some with another. What I can't get my head around is which way around it is.

Here's the stack trace that I get:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/openrdf/model/ValueFactory : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:800)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2615)
    at java.lang.Class.getMethod0(Class.java:2856)
    at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:1668)
    at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.getMainMethod(LauncherHelper.java:494)
    at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.checkAndLoadMain(LauncherHelper.java:486)

I'm executing my code from eclipse and it crashes before reaching main. I've followed a few posts on here saying to change my compliance level/my JRE, but I can't seem to get it to fix.

Is the error saying that the class 'ValueFactory' has been compiled with java 8, or that my code has? I've tried changing my compliance level to 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8, but neither of these fixed the issue.

Your code was compiled with Java 8.

Either compile your code with an older JDK (compliance level) or run it on a Java 8 JRE.

Hope this helps...

Actually you have a code compiled targeting a higher JDK (JDK 1.8 in your case) but at runtime you are supplying a lower JRE(JRE 7 or below).

you can fix this problem by adding target parameter while compilation
e.g. if your runtime target is 1.7, you should use 1.7 or below

javac -target 1.7 *.java

if you are using eclipse, you can sent this parameter at Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Compiler -> set "Compiler compliance level" = choose your runtime jre version or lower.