After carefully researching what translations of the Bible have been made in Māori, what manuscripts they have used, and if God has blessed them, the Trinititarian Bible Society of New Zealand has made the decision to go ahead with reprinting the 1868 version. The 1868 version is the first one volume print of the first translation in Māori that was completed in 1858.

Translation the Bible in Māori had begun almost immediately after the first missionaries had arrived here. William Williams had started the translation of the New Testament and in 1827 the first Scriptures in Māori came from a press in Sydney. In 1835 the first printing press arrived in New Zealand, in Paihia, and it was here that a complete edition of the Māori New Testament was eventually printed by William Colenso in 1837.

Various editions followed. The fifth edition of the New Testament was produced in 1852. The first portions of the Old Testament translated by Robert Maunsell were published in 1840. The entire Old Testament was typeset in 1865. Publication waited for the last revision to the New Testament.

In 1868 a one-volume edition of the whole Bible was published, a substantial volume of 1199 pages of text arranged in two columns, with leather binding and heavy paper. The publication was the culmination of a process of great significance for Māori culture. The Māori Bible became a fundamental part of Māori spirituality, particularly on the marae. It became a tapu object, deeply respected and venerated both as an object and for the words it contained. Memorisation of the Bible was highly respected and the text became surrounded with as much tradition as the Authorised Version was in English.