Android Studioでgradlew testでjava.lang.NullPointerExceptionが起きる

環境

Android Studio 3.1.2

Windows 10、macOS 10.12.6 いずれも同様の現象が起きる

状況

Android Studio 3.1.2で新規プロジェクトを作成します。
作成後、app/build.gradleに以下を追加します。

groovy
1android {
2    // 略
3    compileOptions {
4        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
5        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
6    }
7}

その後、コンソールから、./gradlew testを実行すると

$ ./gradlew test

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
> java.lang.NullPointerException (no error message)

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 11s

となります。

最初に追加した、Java 1.8の設定を削除するとエラーは起きません。
何らかの対応方法をご存じの方がいらっしゃいましたら、よろしくお願いします。

確認したこと

プロジェクトのクリーン
プロジェクトルートの.gradleの削除
Gradleのバージョンの変更（最初4.4。4.5にしたが変わらず、4.6以上は別の問題のため未確認）

参考までにスタックトレースは次のように出力されています。

$ ./gradlew test --stacktrace

// 文字数制限のため省略

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:782)
        at com.google.common.base.Splitter.split(Splitter.java:376)
        at com.android.utils.PathUtils.getClassPathItems(PathUtils.java:84)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.transforms.FixStackFramesTransform.<init>(FixStackFramesTransform.java:151)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.TaskManager.maybeCreateDesugarTask(TaskManager.java:2425)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.TaskManager.createPostCompilationTasks(TaskManager.java:2248)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.ApplicationTaskManager.addCompileTask(ApplicationTaskManager.java:295)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.ApplicationTaskManager.lambda$createTasksForVariantScope$12(ApplicationTaskManager.java:229)
        at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder.record(ThreadRecorder.java:81)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.ApplicationTaskManager.createTasksForVariantScope(ApplicationTaskManager.java:225)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.VariantManager.createTasksForVariantData(VariantManager.java:530)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.VariantManager.lambda$createAndroidTasks$1(VariantManager.java:352)
        at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder.record(ThreadRecorder.java:81)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.VariantManager.createAndroidTasks(VariantManager.java:348)
        at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.lambda$createAndroidTasks$6(BasePlugin.java:751)
        at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder.record(ThreadRecorder.java:81)
        at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.createAndroidTasks(BasePlugin.java:746)
        at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.lambda$null$4(BasePlugin.java:652)
        at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder.record(ThreadRecorder.java:81)
        at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.lambda$createTasks$5(BasePlugin.java:648)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$ActionInvocationHandler.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:91)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$ActionInvocationHandler.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:80)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.AbstractBroadcastDispatch.dispatch(AbstractBroadcastDispatch.java:42)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$SingletonDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:230)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$SingletonDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:149)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.AbstractBroadcastDispatch.dispatch(AbstractBroadcastDispatch.java:58)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$CompositeDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:324)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$CompositeDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:234)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.ListenerBroadcast.dispatch(ListenerBroadcast.java:140)
        at org.gradle.internal.event.ListenerBroadcast.dispatch(ListenerBroadcast.java:37)
        at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ProxyDispatchAdapter$DispatchingInvocationHandler.invoke(ProxyDispatchAdapter.java:93)
        at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy26.afterEvaluate(Unknown Source)
        at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.notifyAfterEvaluate(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:76)
        ... 81 more


* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 2s