diff --git a/actionpack/lib/action_view/template/handlers/erb.rb b/actionpack/lib/action_view/template/handlers/erb.rb
index bbf012ab154c7db17c3fbadb064e0eea4c9dcd6c..cbed0108cf4942900372b4c979dbeba3d4c7902a 100644
--- a/actionpack/lib/action_view/template/handlers/erb.rb
+++ b/actionpack/lib/action_view/template/handlers/erb.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ module ActionView
   class OutputBuffer < ActiveSupport::SafeBuffer
     def initialize(*)
       super
-      encode!
+      encode! if encoding_aware?
     end
 
     def <<(value)
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ def compile(template)
             if !encoding && (template.source.encoding == Encoding::BINARY)
               raise WrongEncodingError.new(template_source, Encoding.default_external)
             end
+          else
+            erb = template.source.dup
           end
 
           result = self.class.erb_implementation.new(
diff --git a/actionpack/test/template/template_test.rb b/actionpack/test/template/template_test.rb
index c4a65d84fc591a5195f47a5f0e844bc5f34cbdd8..995d728d5066f4ea1b913f63f17d01f73f3ecfb3 100644
--- a/actionpack/test/template/template_test.rb
+++ b/actionpack/test/template/template_test.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 require "abstract_unit"
 
-# These are the normal settings that will be set up by Railties
-# TODO: Have these tests support other combinations of these values
-Encoding.default_internal = "UTF-8"
-Encoding.default_external = "UTF-8"
+if "ruby".encoding_aware?
+  # These are the normal settings that will be set up by Railties
+  # TODO: Have these tests support other combinations of these values
+  Encoding.default_internal = "UTF-8"
+  Encoding.default_external = "UTF-8"
+end
 
 class TestERBTemplate < ActiveSupport::TestCase
   ERBHandler = ActionView::Template::Handlers::ERB