In Genesis 2:7, it says that “the LORD formed man of the DUST of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living SOUL.” The word MAN is the word ADAM (H120), and is used two different ways in the Scriptures. It can be indicative of a specific human being (the first man, Adam), or of the entire species of mankind. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary tells us on page 25 that:
Adam means man, and in many places the Hebrew word refers to mankind in general. Genesis 1:27, for example, says, “So God created man [adam] in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female [see also Genesis 5:2; 6:1]. Adam is also used of the first man, either with the article as “the man” (Genesis 2:15,16) or as the name “Adam” (Genesis 4:1,25; 5:3,4). Finally, the term can refer to a member of the human race, “a man” (e.g., Genesis 2:5, “there was no man to work the ground”).
Genesis 5:2 says: “And [He] called (not his, but) THEIR name Adam.” The word ADAM is clearly used in the plural form here, which denotes, not the first man, but mankind in general.
Now perhaps you are aware that “dust” is a symbol for man-KIND (Gen. 3:19; Eccl 12:7; etc). So what is the Gen. 2:7 text really implying? Could it be that God merely took the DUST (prehistoric men) who were already here on the earth and added a key element (God's Spirit) to turn the DUST into a living SOUL? The word “breath” (H5397: ruah) can denote divine inspiration or intellect. One of Christianity's biggest misconceptions is this idea that God already perfectly created (past tense) man in His image. He did not. Creating man in God's image has been an ongoing PROCESS, which began (perhaps) several hundred thousand years ago with prehistoric men, and will not be completed until this corruption puts on incorruption (I Cor. 15). So it is very possible that approximately 6,000 years ago God was simply moving this evolutionary process along according to His plan. And this would go a long way to explain all of the skeletal remains of creatures such as Neanderthal man Cro-Magnon man, which bore a resemblance to modern man, but were different nonetheless. A Biblical Hebrew scholar also testified to Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder that there is nothing definitive in the Genesis account which would positively affirm that Adam and Eve were the first humankind beings created by God.
Peace