The Story of The Three Trees 

He was nailed through the wrist. If He was nailed through the palms then the weight of his weakening body might have caused the nails to tear through His hands and He might have fallen forward. By nailing the forearm side of the wrist the whole wrist holds Him firmly on the cross. I think that the march of time over 2000 years has meant that the way people understand things is often influenced by paintings and translations rather than the written truth of ancient records and the original Greek Bible texts.