diff --git a/repl/scala-2.10/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/SparkILoop.scala b/repl/scala-2.10/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/SparkILoop.scala
index 8dc0e0c965923..488f3a9f33256 100644
--- a/repl/scala-2.10/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/SparkILoop.scala
+++ b/repl/scala-2.10/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/SparkILoop.scala
@@ -1028,7 +1028,7 @@ class SparkILoop(
       logInfo("Created sql context (with Hive support)..")
     }
     catch {
-      case cnf: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException =>
+      case _: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException | _: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError =>
         sqlContext = new SQLContext(sparkContext)
         logInfo("Created sql context..")
     }