List of Java class file format major version numbers?

Question

I saw this list of major version numbers for Java in another post:

Java	Major version
23	67
22	66
21	65
20	64
19	63
18	62
17	61
16	60
15	59
14	58
13	57
12	56
11	55
10	54
9	53
8	52
7	51
6	50
5	49
1.4	48
1.3	47
1.2	46
1.1	45
1.0.2	45

Where does this list come from? Is there a specific reference for this? Preferably something that shows minor versions too?

Answer 1

These come from the class version. If you try to load something compiled for java 6 in a java 5 runtime you'll get the error, incompatible class version, got 50, expected 49. Or something like that.

See here in byte offset 7 for more info.

Additional info can also be found here.