When I download a copy of Clojure (1.8.0 or any other version), either from Maven Central or the official website, it will claim to be version 1.7.0-RC1.
For example:
$ java -jar clojure-1.8.0.jar
Clojure 1.7.0-RC1
user=>
It also seems that this is, in fact, the version that is run. Since functions that were added in 1.8.0 (specifically string/starts-with?) are not available in the repl (after importing).
When an identical copy of the file (verified by shasum) is downloaded on a separate laptop, the correct version runs.
I have verified this with several versions, including 1.8.0, 1.9.0-alpha17, and 1.5.0-RC2. All of them report as 1.7.0-RC1.
Additional information:
$ java -version
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)
Using macOS version 10.12.3.