diff --git a/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/invoker.properties b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/invoker.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..10a36d0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/invoker.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+invoker.java.version = 9+
diff --git a/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/pom.xml b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..29cb2975
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+  or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+  distributed with this work for additional information
+  regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+  to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+  "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+  with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+  software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+  "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+  KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+  specific language governing permissions and limitations
+  under the License.
+-->
+
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>testcase</groupId>
+  <artifactId>javadoc-fails-with-release-and-not-source</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <packaging>bundle</packaging>
+
+  <url>https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MJAVADOC-591</url>
+
+  <properties>
+    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+    <maven.compiler.release>8</maven.compiler.release>
+  </properties>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>4.1.0</version>
+        <extensions>true</extensions>
+        <configuration>
+          <instructions>
+            <Automatic-Module-Name>com.example.testcase</Automatic-Module-Name>
+          </instructions>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>@project.version@</version>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>attach-javadocs</id>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>jar</goal>
+            </goals>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/src/main/java/com/example/Foo.java b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/src/main/java/com/example/Foo.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b1a91fac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it/projects/MJAVADOC-591_release8/src/main/java/com/example/Foo.java
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+package com.example;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * This is a Foo.
+ */
+public interface Foo
+{
+    /**
+     * Frobnicates the foo.
+     */
+    public void frobnicate();
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
index bf77ffc9..2abd8d1e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
@@ -4933,7 +4933,8 @@ private void addJavadocOptions( File javadocOutputDirectory,
         Map<String, JavaModuleDescriptor> allModuleDescriptors = new HashMap<>();
 
         boolean supportModulePath = javadocRuntimeVersion.isAtLeast( "9" )
-            && ( source == null || JavaVersion.parse( source ).isAtLeast( "9" ) );
+            && ( source == null || JavaVersion.parse( source ).isAtLeast( "9" ) )
+            && ( release == null || JavaVersion.parse( release ).isAtLeast( "9" ) );
 
         if ( supportModulePath )
         {